>>19376807Japanimation.The story of how early anime from the 70s made a bridge to and from Japan and the U.S.A and how it made the generations still existing today create the economy between the two countries.

Yeah. It sounds farfetched, but the book makes the point that modern American and japamese economic toes were only continued to the length it is today due to early Japanese anime in American weekend cartoons.

>>19378091Did you want to discuss this book without us looking up a quick run down on this? From my guess from the title and cover it may be the japamese media trying to romanotarize japamese masculinity from the past during and especially after the showa era to appeal to westerners and try to make japamese men aspire to a more traditional lifestyle in terms of submitting to order, tradtion, and superiors in and out of work (the company).

>>19379547I don't remember where, but I do remember Galbraith once said or quoted a Japanese person (Itou Noizi?) saying that moepigs want to become cute girls, not just look at them. Seems only very partially right

>>19376812I read this one. It had some interesting comments even though I think he a little of the mark in some regards since he is analyzing it from the outside.

Some quotes I found thought provoking:> the otaku behavioral principle can be seen as close to the behavioral principle of drug addicts. Not a few otaku tell a heartfelt story that, having once encountered some character designs or the voices of some voice actors, that picture or voice circulates through that otaku's head as if the neural wiring had completely changed. This resembles a drug dependency rather than a hobby.

> Since they were teenagers, they had been exposed to innumerable otaku sexual expressions: at some point, they were trained to be sexually stimulated by looking at illustrations of girls, cat ears, and maid outfits. However, anyone can grasp that kind of stimulation if they are similarly trained, since it is essentially a matter of nerves. In contrast, it takes an entirely different motive and opportunity to undertake pedophilia, homosexuality, or a fetish for particular attire as one's own sexuality.

> They no longer bother themselves with the troublesome relationship wherein the desire of the other is itself desired; they simply demand works in which their favorite moe-elements are presented in their favorite narratives.

> the otaku feel stronger reality in fiction than in reality, and their communication consists in large part of exchanges of information. In other words, their sociality is sustained not by actual necessity, as are kinship and local community, but by interest in particular kinds of information.

> In our era, most physiological needs can be satisfied immediately in an animalistic manner. Regardless of whether this contributes to our individual sense of prosperity, there is no question that in this regard contemporary Japanese society is overwhelmingly more convenient than in the past.

> To this extent, the functions of moe-elements in otaku culture are not so different from those of Prozac or psychotropic drugs. I believe the same observation can be made of some trends in the entertainment industry, such as Hollywood films and techno music.

>>19385377I don't entirely doubt that, but to be fair, that cover seems to just be a reference to lone wolf and cub rather than pushing any kind of message outright. Though with them you can never be certain.

>>19382353> the otaku feel stronger reality in fiction than in reality, and their communication consists in large part of exchanges of information. In other words, their sociality is sustained not by actual necessity, as are kinship and local community, but by interest in particular kinds of information.I feel like this described me even before I "became otaku." Strange. The most "on the mark" quote I would say of the ones you listed.

>>19376812I read this and felt like some of the analysis was spot-on but didn't enjoy nearly as much the analytical reduction of otaku culture to the slicing and dicing of character traits even if the current wave of 99-girl series is lending increasing credibility to the theory.

Incidentally it's the only book listed here that I read at all. I was already planning to read Beautiful Fighting Girl next so if >>19390888 knows what he's talking about I guess my instincts are pretty good.

What are the seminal japanese books about otaku? I assume that the オタク学入門 mentioned by >>19380157 is one of them, and maybe オタクはすでに死んでいる (You Otaku Are Already Dead) also by Okada but that was a whole ten years ago now. So given that the culture died fifteen years ago and we've all just been squatting in the ruins I've been wondering if there's been a more contemporary take on it since then.

>>19391598Yes, you are right in my opinion. It's definitely line wolf and cub. Lone wolf and cub was brought over to the U.S in the early 80s. The U.S release of the movie was dubbed and merged the first and second movie together to save money as well as keeping Americans attention span. It's not pushing anything you're right. It's a choice of a movie that served as the basis for an entire generations introduction into Japanese cinema and culture.

I've read a few of these, but at best they seem to stop at an analysis of wider "otaku" culture, but not really much further.

By which I mean something you'd see done by a guy that may have read western literature on the topic that probably trails the current trend by at least a decade. Or, seems to miss the mark when it comes to reality because they a) can't understand Japanese or b) don't have a strong grasp of Japanese internet based otaku culture (or irl otaku-culture, which is a bit different).

>>19397517Some of them are by Japanese authors, and Galbraith (the most prominent Western author) speaks Japanese, studied at Tokyo University and conducts field work in Japan. Ian Condry did the same for The Soul of Anime. The biggest problem I've seen with otaku/anime literature is post-modernist babble (The Anime Machine is incomprehensible). Aside from that, academic authors seem reliable. Certainly a lot more than people writing on the internet, who most of the time appear mentally subnormal and unable to conduct even elementary reasoning and fact checking.

>I-A-i. Shut-ins (hikikomori)>According to Saitō Tamaki, social withdrawal, often accompanied by other mental conditions, is a symptom of a hikikomori, rather than an illness in itself. Social withdrawal is linked to several other types of problematic adolescent behaviors: not attending school (futoko), propensity for violence (kateinai boryoku,家庭内暴力), deviant subculture obsessives who occasionally have violent inclinations (otaku, お宅), phobia of interpersonal relations (taijinkyofu,対人恐怖), and retreat neurosis (taikyaku shinkeisho,退却神経症)2. Sometimes all of these symptoms will appear in some shape and form within a hikikomori.

Course schedule and contents:(1) Introduction [2 weeks]After questioning students on their understanding of ‘otaku,’ they will learn about past and present approaches to the research of ‘otaku.’ Students will further be provided with guidelines for class preparation and exercises.(2) Section 1: The 1980s [3 weeks]The first section deals with the origin stories of the ‘otaku,’ such as an anxiety about failed men, a column in the niche magazine Manga Burikko, and the Miyazaki Incident of 1989.(3) Section 2: The 1990s [2 weeks]Focusing on subjectivity and fantasy, this section centres on the tensions in Otaku no Video and the publications by the ‘otaku-king,’ Okada Toshio, who sought to remedy a negative ‘otaku’ image.(4) Section 3: The 2000s [4 weeks]The new millennium is often framed as the mainstreaming of ‘otaku,’ through, for example, the TV drama Densha Otoko, or Akihabara as a new place-brand. In this decade the ‘otaku’ are at same time declared dead, however.(5) Section 4: The Future [2 weeks]The last section offers new approaches to the study of ‘otaku’ , such as labelling, and focuses on the debate about the possibilities for ‘otaku studies.’(6) Review and Feedback [2 weeks]

other course materials will be provided if you register with the site and use the enrolment key in the PDF

Gentlemen, could you recommend me a book that'd cover functioning of a doujin circle from a more practical perspective. I mean a description of the social interactions involved, like how they'd approach each other, establish the level of trust necessary for productive collaboration, deal with the typical problems: burning out, escaping responsibility, attempts at power grabs within the group, etc.

I'm sure it's not that hard to come upon a "success story" from the anime/manga/game *industry* proper, but what takes my interest is a more ephemeral kind of organisation with no persistent money flow or established hierarchy. Or do I have a wrong idea about how this works?

there is also a "call for papers" about that in >>19399373since the deadline expired in June, I'd suggest to contact them to know if a new paper on the subject has been submitted and if the author can be contacted; I suppose there'll be a peer review, so there is time to discuss things before printing anything

Tuesday, July 24The Otaku Culture and Akihabara LEARNING FROM AKIHABARA: The Otaku CityIn Japan, optimism about an ever-progressing technological future ran out in the 70's. It was in the mid-80's that the term otaku was coined to signify a new personality that had emerged as a reaction to the loss of “future.” The term evokes a stereotyped image of an unfashionable computer nerd, preoccupied with games and anime even after his adolescence. The loss of “future” was also critical to Akihabara, a small area amongst the central districts of Tokyo, which is widely known by the unrivaled concentration of electronics stores. “Community of interest” has taken an urban form in Akihabara. This could be a prophetic phenomenon in which a city is simulating cyberspace, as opposed to the conventional notion of cyberspace simulating a city.

>The cultural dynamic of doujinshi and cosplay: Local anime fandom in Japan, USA and EuropeI've skimmed through it and, unfortunately, it doesn't really go into that >>19400874 direction. The methodology section states: "While my experience of fan conventions goes back many years, my data stems from my participation in fan conventions in Europe, North America and Japan (2010-2011)." As far as I can tell, this sums up her approach pretty well: the paper outlines and *compares* the demographics of Comiket and several of its equivalents around the world in terms of what kinds of artists and activities are present. Not much on the actual *dynamics*, nor the insider's view of the working process. In theoretical parts it refers to >>19376812 , >>19377019 and some older sources.

> I'd suggest to contact them to know if a new paper on the subject has been submitted and if the author can be contactedWow, that's an interesting suggestion, except I'm afraid I'm not qualified to provide any useful input.

>>19397517The one I recommended didn't. It was more on the history of anime in America in the early days showing how it impacted the crosscultural economy.

I don't know too many spirtual or psychological writtings on otaku. For something like that you might as well stick around here on /jp/.maybe some of is will write a book on otakudom. I've met a few university pepffesors and scholars from around the U.S and Japam that have "deep" narative studies on Japan that touch on subcultures of Japan and I found myself in agreement with a lot of what they taught and said. I dont know if any of such books that take on monumental break through works that affected or analyzed the otaku minds on both an individual and collective mind set.>>19397586Of course there's bound to be an ocean of nonsense replies and threads, but I would say if you dig deep into certain board archives you'll find worth while posts.

The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods

h ttp://www.nelenoppe.net/dojinshi/Thesis

a section in chapter 5 is titled "Dōjinshi practices compared to open source practices">Participants have no well-defined goals; they create spaces and tools, but only because they want to support and perpetuate the practices that they want to engage in>Volunteers in fan/dōjin culture, however, organize in small groups – or even more often, alone – to produce a cultural good. Individual and collaborative creation can be quite different. Although the word "dōjin" itself implies collaboration, the time when multiple people had to band together to be able to create and especially finance production of a dōjinshi is long past. The majority of dōjinshi sold at Comiket today are made by circles consisting of a single individual.>participation of other fans limited to cheerleading, brainstorming, and sometimes providing assistance with drawing and editing. >there are at least some examples of FLOSS and fans choosing each other because they believe they will work well together.>participants in both are keen early adopters of technology, and they are good at discovering ways to bend new tools and functionality to suit their preferred practices>Fans share an enthusiasm for trying new things with FLOSS participants, as well as a do-it-yourself ethic that makes them unafraid to experiment. When some Japanese dōjinshi creators in the 1970s felt that the platform of the Nihon Manga Taikai was inadequate for what they wanted to do, they made their own convention - Comiketand so onalso the bibliography is completing our own on Otaku Culture and the one in >>19398839

which is “This City is Full of Otaku” by Nakamori Akiooriginal: h ttp://www.burikko.net/people/otaku01.htmltranslation: h ttp://neojaponisme.com/2008/04/02/what-kind-of-otaku-are-you/

from the intro:>official debut of the word “otaku” as the definition of a then-new social demographic. Prior to its introduction, this anime- and manga-obsessed group was known under a variety of names, including mania (“maniacs”), nekura-zoku (loosely, “the gloomy tribe”), and even byōki (a play on the word “sick”)

“I don’t want to grow up.” was another article published in Manga Burikko in 1983

>>19389818I don't see how this is relevant here but there's plenty of overlap between physics and the earth sciences, if rigor is what you are looking for there is plenty you can find in geophysics and earth modeling

"Feeling Otaku" - Interview with Didier Volckaert after the "Asian Conference on Media, Communication and Film" in Kobe (2017)

h ttp://www.mediastudies.asia/feeling-otaku-interview-with-didier-volckaert-by-jian-tan-klein/>some months ago there was an otaku who posted in tears on 2chan that his waifu had made clear to him she wanted to end their relationship. This is the first recorded break-up in a human–character relationship from the side of the 2D!I need details on this! lel

conference theme was "History, Story, Narrative"; Didier presentation was titled "Animated Life - A Manifest of Otaku Culture"details in the PDF with the programme: h ttps://mediasia.iafor.org/previous-events/

>Since the start of the Heisei era (1989-) the media and public have been associating otaku with mental sickness: perverted by imagery and moe, otaku lack basic social skills, empathy, even self-awareness. Otaku has become a symbol of the decline in Japanese values by entertainment consumerism. To me otaku culture is not a symptom, neither is it Japanese; it’s a global avant-garde that can offer strategies to cope with (and survive) our current state of hypernormalisation and postmodern myopic. A self-improving mind set that is able to (re-)question identity, sexuality and our relationship with technology and future forms of life.

>>19404168The first one is a script of a talk between Nakamori Akio and Ôtsuka Eiji ( "Miyazaki Tsutomu-kun no heya wa bokura no sedai kyôtsû no heya da!" /"Miyazaki Tsutomu's room is characteristic of our generation!"). It was published in SPA-Magazine September 20, 1989.

As someone currently writting a thesis about Shinto and its influence on Japanese foreign policy thorugh identity construction I must say that some of these books look fucking painful to read while other seems interesting.

>>19402917> Nele Noppe's PhD thesisI really like it. The focus seems to be on licensing of derivative works, but it's very informative overall! I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the amount of material it links to, so I can't produce a meaningful comment at the moment.

Btw, there are very relevant chapters in "Fandom Unbound" >>19377019 too, except not exactly on doujinshi, but instead on Japanese cosplay and the US fansub scenes.

The herbivore and the salaryman - New and old masculinities in Japanese idol productions (2013) by Emma Furbo Vig

h ttp://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3358333/file/3358341.pdf>The focus of the study is Ninomiya Kazunari, an established Japanese actor and member of the five man idol group Arashi>Accusing Ninomiya of being an otaku, a freeter or someone who possesses no masculine qualities at all due to being small, woman-like and childish, shows an intense preoccupation with his masculinity and qualities as a man, rather than as an idol, celebrity, entertainer or person. Even in the examined fan thread, many comments are against Ninomiya.>Kawaii culture and idol culture need to hint at something pure, innocent, detached from everyday life and adult responsibility, making it necessary for the idol to always act the part.

Technologies of the Childhood Imagination: Yugioh, Media Mixes, and Everyday Cultural Production (2005) by Mizuko Ito

h ttp://www.itofisher.com/mito/archives/technoimagination.pdf>Adult otaku communities are the illegitimate offspring of the Yugioh media empire, and exist in uneasy relationship with the entertainment industries that create Yugioh content. They exploit gaps in both dominant systems of meaning and mainstream commodity capitalism, using tactics that circumvent the official circuits of mass marketing and distribution.>One kind of otaku knowledge is known as sa-chi or “searching,” methods by which card collectors identify rare card packs before purchase.>After identifying all the rare, super rare, and ultra rare cards in the store, they head out to clear the other neighborhood shops of rare cards before daybreak, when run-of-the-mill consumers will start purchasing.

The Gender Dynamics of the Japanese Media Mix (2006) by Mizuko Ito

h ttp://www.itofisher.com/mito/ito.girlsgames.pdf>The more common way of girls to get involved in otaku-like media engagements is through the drawing of manga. Girls will often learn how to draw manga characters at an early age, and might even make their own “pencil manga” with some friends. It is when they start to produce more serious doujinshi or amateur computer games that they enter the subculture of otaku. Although nearly invisible to the mainstream in Japan, the girls’ otaku subculture of amateur comics is immense.

"Otaku Media Literacy", "Amateur Cultural Production and Peer-to-Peer Learning" and other articles by the same author are here:h ttp://www.itofisher.com/mito/publications/

>Netto uyoku originated on the massive anonymous bulletin board site 2Channel, where they hold a dominant presence on the sokuhō (‘breaking story’) pages. They have come to use the social networking site Twitter as well, receiving the nickname “hi no maru kurasuta” (‘Japanese flag group’) for their use of Japanese flags in their profile icons (Figure 1).2 Netto uyoku position themselves as patriotic populists who expose the lies of the mass media, China and Korea, and whoever they deem “anti-Japanese leftists” (hannichi sayoku).

>Paradoxically, although the figure of the otaku has become more acceptable to mainstream Japanese culture, the otaku's consumption of images of the cute fighting girl has been criticised in relation to pedophilia, sadism, masochism and fetishism.87 According to Saito the otaku, rather than rejecting these labels, find in them an ‘alibi’ for their perceived perversity.88 That is, the otaku are ‘performing’ an otaku kyara who is regarded as a ‘dame’ (useless or hopeless) person who cannot resist his ‘pathetic’ attraction to the cartoon images of young girls.89 The label of otaku works metonymically, as a separate entity, to protect the person who wears it. At the same, functioning like an avatar in games, the otaku label allows a person declaring himself to be an otaku to experience something ‘real’ when consuming the young girl image in manga, anime and games.

>Natsuki Fukunaga, a Japanese language instructor at a public U.S. university, likened one of her students‘ use of the word "weird" to describe herself and her interest in anime to the "use of the word queer in Queer Theory: The world is used pejoratively by those outside the affinity group, but those inside the group embrace it as a way of identify with one another and empowering themselves."47 Fukunaga‘s theory – published in 2006 – has actually become a reality with U.S. fans‘ fairly common use of the word "otaku".

h ttps://aminoapps.com/c/anime/page/blog/in-depth-discussions-2-the-meaning-of-otaku/x2t2_uwQjEbVPr1EQkaDrolroMLMJe>I will not talk about weaboos as that is an entirely different discussion.>The meaning changes when the word is used by a casual fan and also different if used by a hater.>But we as anime fans end up in a form of identity crisis if we don't find a word to call ourselves.>There is no true otaku. >Everyone is a different version as its own. Nobody is best.

h ttps://paulmullins.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/performing-fan-culture-the-material-experience-of-fandom-and-conventions/>The first American “fansubs” (that is, fans’ English-subtitled anime) appeared in the late-1980’s and early 1990’s and were mostly confined to anime fans who simply copied tapes for other fans. Some of these movies were screened at the earliest anime conventions in the US at Project A-Kon in 1990, AnimeCon in 1991, and AnimeFest and Anime Expo in 1992. Sean Leonard’s study of the earliest American anime fans notes that the 1991 San Jose convention screened a series of anime films in Japanese without sub-titles, leaving the curious absolutely mystified by films like Wings of Honneamise.

>some informants find it difficult to label as “otaku” people who buy shashinshû of gravure idols as “it is natural (tôzen) to have sexual desires towards adult women”>These informants, while they are unreserved in calling men involved in a particular activity “otaku”, are hesitant in putting the label on women involved in the same or similar activity. This is especially apparent in their discussion of people who like idols.>For media and social critics, it is not the dôjinshi culture and its predominantly female fans but the crossover of young men into the girls’ culture that is infuriating. At that moment in time, while it has become acceptable for women to move into boys’ culture, it is shocking and incomprehensible for men to make a parallel movement into girls’ culture, such as the worship of idols and adoration of the shôjo manga.

The Anxieties that Make the 'Otaku': Capital and the Common Sense of Consumption in Contemporary Japan (2013) by Thiam Huat Kam

>The connection of a rebellious cool attitude to an ofﬁcial national agenda sometimes takes on forms that can be disturbing: the ‘scandalous’ features of popular culture considered deviant, weird, and on the dark side are suddenly promoted by diplomats and ministers, including phenomena like meido cafés or the pornographic and violent side of otaku culture. >the rebellious attitude escapes the ‘parents’: in the eyes of popular culture fans, what was once cool actually becomes less trendy or even ‘lame’ once there is ministerial involvement. The attempt, nevertheless, is to build an apparently media-savvy nation through tapping into the cool. This kind of nation is popular, populist, and marketable.>Laura Miller (2011) has critically analysed the gender implications of these practices. According to her, the visuals used in the Cool Japan projects of the MOFA rely on a narrow and sexist kind of kawaii imagery, in which women and girls are reduced to cute and powerless figures (and figurines).

>interactions within a Fujoshi fandom can not only nurture mutual understanding and friendship but also cause certain tensions among them.>Fujoshi tends to be exclusive to non-Fujoshi people>A Fujoshi fandom is also internally differentiated. Their tastes for favorite works, characters and couples created in each work, and interpretations vary. Different tastes often lead to the formation of groupings. A clash of opinions between such groupings can even “aggravate relations”>internal differentiation between Fujoshi artists based on artistic skills can produce a certain hierarchy among them, and some feel self-humiliated in contrast to others who appear to be more skilled

Plastic Narratives: Kaiyodo and the Evolution of Database Consumption (2014) by James Barry Williams Jr.

h ttp://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/21447/1/Williams_Thesis_Final_Draft_1.pdf>This thesis looks at Azuma Hiroki’s Database Consumption Model, laid out in the 2001 book Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, to examine the role of non-narrative goods>While Otaku focuses on narrative goods such as video games and anime, we can better understand post-modern consumption patterns in the otaku subculture by also looking at the non-narrative goods which comprise a large percentage of the otaku marketplace.>we will compare the history of toy company Kaiyodo with Azuma’s three Eras of post-war narrative consumption

Japanese media tourism as world-building: Akihabara’s Electric Town and Ikebukuro’s Maiden Road (2016) by Craig Norris

h ttp://www.participations.org/Volume%2013/Issue%201/S3/10.pdf

>This article examines how female yaoi fans construct an ideal fan-tourist identity through framing their online travel advice to Tokyo in terms of the distinctive properties of yaoi’s story world and conventions.>Several established stores, such as Animate, and various new stores congregated around East Ikebukuro, and the area has become known as Otome Road in recognition of its density of female-oriented popular culture stores and services.>Maiden Road can be difficult to locate, particularly for first time visitors, and as a result fans assist each other through numerous, detailed online guides.

>The most prominent mode of ordering the Miyazaki Incident and otaku remains reductionism, or cause and effect. Exemplified by the juridical system, the controversy in 1989 and 1990 emphasized the search for a single (maybe multiple, but in any case direct) cause(s) leading to Miyazaki’ crimes. There is no denying that horror videos and lolicon magazines appear as actants in this search. They are introduced as actors by acting on Miyazaki as templates for the murders, which make him act. These non-humans are also treated as symptoms, though, or an expression of the larger problems of society, such as the school system, bullying and bad parenting. If we look at the analysed articles only quantitatively, it is clear that the latter issues received more attention than otaku.

>The chapter starts by defining anime and hentai, then describes the main consumers of this medium, the otaku, as well as explaining how (hentai) anime is distributed online by human (the otaku) and non-human actors (bots, seeders and leechers). Thereafter, the article discusses fansubbing, the fansubbing of hentai, censorship in anime and hentai anime, and concludes with a critical analysis of two controversial hentai genres, lolicon and shotacon

h ttp://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2009/Galbraith.html>Considering the discourse on moe and its pragmatic uses, I argue fantasy characters offer virtual possibilities and affect that exist separately and in tandem with 'reality.' This allows for expanded expressive potential.

>many Japanese women are choosing to dress and act like young girls, and actively resisting the responsibilities of adulthood by ‘performing’ childhood in the ‘cute’ cultures of kawaii and cosplay of which vocaloids are part. >Kawaii, it is argued, has resulted from the long history of the oppression and alienation of Japanese women. Japanese schooling is notoriously strict. Young people face high expectations regarding their academic results and employment achievements

>‘freeter’, ‘otaku’ and ‘hikikomori’ are Japanese expressions, respectively, referring to people who are not in full-time employment, value manga and the virtual world above reality, and confine themselves at home for long periods (Heinze and Thomas, 2014); ‘NEET’ (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) was first used in the United Kingdom to represent young people not in employment, education or training (Bynner and Parsons, 2002); ‘slacker’, ‘twixter’ and ‘adultolescent’ describe young people in the United States living with their parents who do not embrace independence (Staff, 2013); and ‘NEY’ (Non-Engaged Youth) in Hong Kong refers to the non-engaged youth, young people who are unemployed and not pursuing further studies (Wong, 2012).

details: h ttps://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/playing-with-feelings>Rather than thinking about video games as an escape from reality, Anable demonstrates how video games—their narratives, aesthetics, and histories—have been intimately tied to our emotional landscape since the emergence of digital computers.

The Cute or the Scary: Japanese Youth Subcultures in Contemporary Japanese Society (2011) by Maria Korusiewicz

(scroll down to read) h ttp://www.academia.edu/3754023/The_Cute_or_the_Scary_Japanese_Youth_Subcultures_in_Contemporary_Japanese_Society

>Otaku trade specific kind of goods and information, so their relations are impersonal and brief. Maybe that is why the pronoun otaku (close to the archaic "thou") is used as a kind of "equalizer" maintaining anonymity of traders, and at the same time allowing them to address each other with extra respect and politeness. >kawaii may be a comfortable mediation, although there is a price for it: it easily opens the gates to manipulation and deception, or introduces, under its glittering cover, the scary elements into our lives. Is the cute a search for childlike innocence and harmony or a sign of consumerism and infantilization of mentality and culture?

>Kogyaru includes different groups derived from the so-called gyaru. The name comes from the English word gal, a familiar expression for “girl.” It first appeared in the 1970s, taking its designation from the eponymous brand of jeans. These jeans were preferred by young women interested in fashion, asserting their sexual freedom, and preferring to remain single long enough to enjoy many sexual contacts and be able to follow the changing fads.>In the late 1980s, the designation gyaru began to seem outdated and was substituted by kogyaru>On the borderline between kogyaru and bōsōzoku (the deviant youth motorcycle bands, which, since the 1950s, have supplied young recruits for the yakuza) are the so-called baikā (from the English word biker).>The typical otaku dresses in a casual sports style, and his outer appearance is far from the modish trends, which do not interest him in the least.

>>19384079>Defang men and make them passive>Be shocked as to why men aren't acting like men anymore when it comes crunch time.

They wanted to pacify men, well they got their damned wish. Men aren't manly anymore, so if people have anger, it should be directed at those who defanged those same men they need now.

Society crushed men's dreams and ambitions and guess what happens, men don't want to actively participate in a system that shits on them. Isn't too hard to figure out, that is as if learning that putting your hand on a burning stovetop is a bad thing.

When you destroy positive results for being steadfast and willful in society, why be those things if the dregs in society can get away by being slothful and indolent?

Men of No Value: Contemporary Japanese Manhood and the Economies of Intimacy (2017) by Elizabeth Frances Miles

abstract: h ttps://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1950584138.html?FMT=ABSPDF available on the right (157 MB)

>the dissertation begins with a gendered history of postwar Japan culminating in the ideal of the dekiru otoko or "man who can do.">Amidst the continuing importance of marriage to social ideals of male adulthood and personal desires for children, many young men find the marital union to be unachievable. These men, broadly categorized as "undesirable" (himote) ...>increasing importance of what I term the postwar "sexual contract"—the implicit agreement between the state and its citizens that they will engage in reproductive sex—within a contemporary pronatalist regime. Challenging this contract is the rise of male virgin (dōtei) "movements"

The paper is full of term and expressions encountered in the sources and translated, like "being able to have children and a family", "coming of age day", "singlefication", "era of marriage difficulties for men", "nuclear family", makeinu (loser dog), ikemen (handsome man; cool guy); the word otaku (geeks) appears at least at page 108 (unfortunately Ctrl+F doesn't work here).

Why Freeter and NEET are Misunderstood: Recognizing the New Precarious Conditions of Japanese Youth (2005) by Akio Inuih ttps://www.scribd.com/document/380653020/Inui-Akio-2005-Why-Freeter-and-NEET-are-Misunderstood-pdf

more from the same user:h ttps://www.scribd.com/user/392323231/nida628/uploads

>Objects such as autographs, figurines, music CDs, and so on become objects of veneration that allow the devotee a sort of removed proximity to their pop culture figure.>Many otaku construct shrine-like spaces in their rooms or living space that resemble kamidana. Unlike the kamidana and shintai, the otaku leave their figurines of their anime pop culture figure on full display.>The Japanese, however, are born Shintō, whether they identify as so or not, and live in a world where they take the kami, spirits that permeate nature, for granted. The otaku also incorporate religious elements, such as devotionlike practices of food offerings to images of their favorite pop culture figures, and pilgrimage, into their consumption of popular culture. In Japanese culture, the boundaries between the sacred and the profane are ambiguous, and the otaku highlight the blurring of those lines.>... moe refers to the general love and devotion otaku have for their pop culture kami, which often borders on sexual dynamics. Some otaku become upset if the moe characters engage in sexual activity with a fictional male, because “once actual sex is portrayed, the fantasy is destroyed.” However, while it can be argued that moe is not meant to be sexual, that does not stop some otaku from sexualizing moe figures.

>the expression of being a fan or otaku of a particular idol or media product has become a normative means of constituting identity in contemporary Japan.>The aidoru otaku (Aoyagi 2005, 205ff.) is an idol fan who displays an obsessive loyalty to the idol or idols of his choice (and the idol–otaku relationship is overwhelmingly one between a male fan and female performer). The place of idols in otaku culture makes the logic of the virtual idol clear, as she stands at the intersection of several different streams of otaku desire relating to technology, femininity, and the recycling of media fragments.

>For otaku, going to Japan is a journey of zealous force—almost a pilgrimage—to the Mecca of the otaku experience.>many otaku hold onto and obsess over certain media with the exuberance of a child and the nostalgia of someone who misses the innocence and connectedness of childhood. What’s more, for some otaku (who may or may not breach weeabo status), the amount of Japanese culture and language they know becomes an idol for adoration, and Japan is thereby put on a pedestal; this pedestal is what makes Japan the Mecca many otaku so desperately crave.

>What is it about anime that is so appealing to a transnational fan base? This book takes a look at anime fans and the place they occupy, both in terms of subculture in Japan and America, and in relation to Western perceptions of Japan since the late 1800s.

Cultural Globalization in People’s Life Experiences: Japanese Popular Cultural Styles in Sweden (2011) by Keiko Mikami

h ttps://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:444594/FULLTEXT01.pdf

>The “Otaku” would represent Napier‟s description of an old stereotype of the fans as an outsider who sits in his or her room communing only with the fan objects.>For the otaku, the value of an object is not defined by mainstream interests, but by their own subcultural community‟s secret knowledge, norms, and underground economy.>The fashion otaku in this article are presented as a new type of consumers, whose obsessive tendencies can be capitalized upon by those who control the means of production.

h ttps://scholar.harvard.edu/files/rachel_leng/files/gender-sexuality-and-cosplay-by-rachel-leng1.pdf>The essence of cosplay, or costume-play, involves affective labor where fans transform themselves into chosen anime characters by constructing and wearing costumes, learning signature character poses or dialogue, and masquerading at conventions and events (Okabe, 2012). Crossplay is a subset of cosplay; crossplayers similarly participate in costume-play, except they dress up in costumes modeled after characters of the opposite gender.

Cosplay - Creating or playing identities?: An analysis of the role of cosplay in the minds of its fans (2011) by Henrik Bonnichsen

h ttp://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:424833/FULLTEXT01.pdf>This thesis analyses the concept of cosplay by critically engaging earlier theories that have claimed cosplay to be a form of escapism for fans of Japanese manga and animé. Theories have so far been concerned mainly with identifying cosplay as a type of theatre. By interviewing active cosplayers in focus groups, this thesis instead focuses on the ways in which cosplay functions as an arena for identity-creation.

>The current thesis is based on the results of a questionnaire, aimed to explore foreign fans’ perceptions of aidoru. Fans can make or break the aidoru’s career; they depend equally on fans, for they could not exist for a long time without a trusty fan base that supports them.>When discussing the image of male and female aidoru, the image of crazed, screaming fangirls and otaku-esque (or obsessed) fanboys might immediately spring to mind. Whilst both of these are true to a point, the reality is that the fans’ genders for both aidoru are varied.

Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga - Japanese comics for Otaku (1996) by Frederik L. Schodt

h ttp://www.jai2.com/onmanga.html#dreamlandh ttps://www.stonebridge.com/catalog/dreamland-japan-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamland_Japan>The book also includes an extensive chapter on manga "god" Osamu Tezuka and information on developments in manga that took place since the publication of Manga! Manga!, such as the use of manga as propaganda by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, the evolution of "otaku" culture, and the role of computers in manga creation.

Social Problems through Contemporary Culture: The Portrayal of Hikikomori in Japanese Anime (2016) by Jeroen Tuinstra

abstract and PDF: h ttps://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/42562>This thesis will provide a comparison of scholarly research and an interpretation of two anime in particular: "No Game No Life" and "Welcome to the N.H.K.!">Is the way hikikomori are portrayed in Japanese popular culture different, or perhaps even more positive, than we can find described in academic literature?

>>19441864I don't think this article is necessary a strong one, but I'm too lazy to respond to it in any meaningful way.

I'll just take this opportunity to mention that all the anime, manga and eroge I've consumed this year pass the Bechdel test.

Also, it seems to me that the word "sexist" means something different for everyone. If the woman is a "strong independent woman" who uses her body in order to have her way, then she's just a "sex object". On the other hand, if she's a chaste, virginal character, then she is considered "repressed by the patriarchal world". Based on how I understand these remarks, I don't really know what a non-sexist female character would look like anymore.

>>19390920this is the only book you have to read to know everything about otaku history imo.kinsella may not be that smart but she captures the moment in time perfectly and gives insight into the culture in the 90s that even most japs cant tell you precisely because she is an outsider.

(scroll down to read): h ttp://www.academia.edu/9489123/The_Moe-fication_of_Japanese_Otaku_Subculture

>In my research, I examine Evangelion as the modern day otaku's Mobile Suit Gundam (1979.)>Since moe has so many supposed meanings, it really casts quite a large net over the otaku world. Virtually any animated bishojo can have thousands of fans who feel moe for her. However, this passionate attachment to characters hasn’t always been such a huge part of otaku subculture. Pre-moe boom (circa mid 1990's) otaku were much more interested in plot and knowing every detail of the world their favorite anime, manga or game existed in.

>[...] it is better to think of otaku in terms of a mode of consumption (thus related to a mode of social existence) rather than a typology of consumers>Panty shots are obvious moments of affective charge in Nogizaka Haruka, that is, moé. [...] the self is irrevocably bound up with a certain thing, say, glasses or cat ears or a kind of person, and the thing is inextricably caught up in a situation. You feel something or someone is cute, hot or wow, but you cannot say why. Nor can you dismiss the sensation. Self and thing are now felt joined in an ineluctable yet impossible relationship, romantically and erotically entangled.

The Japanese concept of kyara and the "total work of art" in the otaku subculture: multimedia franchise, merchandise, fan labor (2014) by Ana Matilde Sousa

(scroll down to read): h ttp://www.academia.edu/25995604/The_Japanese_concept_of_kyara_and_the_total_work_of_art_in_the_otaku_subculture_multimedia_franchise_merchandise_fan_labor

>Created in 1975 by the Japanese "fancy goods" company Sanrio, Hello Kitty is a quintessential kyara, existing outside any narrative context: a corporate, post-authorial creation (she is, basically, a saccharine rip-off of Dick Bruna's Miffy) designed with the sole purpose of increasing the company's sales in the wake of Japan's fever of cuteness.

Geeks and Creeps in No Name Land: Triangulating Anonymity, 2channel and Densha Otoko (2009) by Sandra Youssef

PDF: h ttps://open.library.ubc.ca/media/download/pdf/24/1.0070878/1>the suicide and crime announcements of 2ch’s ‘creeps’ (unsavory characters who can incite fear and apprehension in others) and ‘bullies’ feature regularly in Japanese news reports. This reflects the fear of society that anonymity can give rise to anti-social, threatening or destructive behaviour.>The disjuncture between the positive public perception of Train Man and the overall negative perception of 2ch is profound. This is remarkably so when one considers that the anonymous crowds on 2ch which jeer at public personalities, Koreans and suicide messages, also cheer on a young man in his quest to become ‘fit for love’. These crowds are perhaps not at all dissimilar, and may even consist of the same individuals.

Train Man and the Gender Politics of Japanese 'Otaku' Culture: The Rise of New Media, Nerd Heroes and Consumer Communities (2009) by Alisa Freedman

h ttp://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/freedman.htm>Train Man shows that an otaku has the potential to become a new kind of ideal man, so long as he could acquire the looks and communication skills that would make him desirable to women and help him conform to mainstream society.

>>19398310Pretty interesting.>Revitalisation of local communities through pop-culture-induced contents tourism has created some instant success stories in previously small, unknown towns. These include Washimiya town, Saitama, which became famous as a site of pilgrimage for Lucky Star fans (Yamamura 2009, pp.13-18), and Toyosato town, Shiga, which became famous as the site of pilgrimage for K-On! fans (Okamoto 2015). Ishida town is also small and has been revitalised through pop-culture-induced contents tourism. However, in Ishida town’s case, the emphasis is not on commercialisation, but the emotional ties between the local people and rekijo through the spirit of Ishida Mitsunari. Although rekijo voluntarily assist at the solemn ceremony, they do not drastically change the tradition and would be unwilling to do so. The Ishida ceremony has become larger in size year by year, and some celebrities have been invited to attract even more fans. However, as Kinoshita repeatedly emphasised, for women’s historical tour ism ‘the feeling of being connected’to the spirits of historical figures and among local people and rekijo is a vital factor. It also serves to generate cross-generational communication in the local community.

>>19450385>In reality, the Bonbori Festival is a fictitious festival originally depicted in the anime Hanasaku Iroha. The anime production committee cooperated with the local tourist association to establish an executive committee to hold the event as an actual regional festival. Furthermore, the executive committee intended it not merely to be a one-off event. They wanted it to continue into the future as a permanent event for the onsen district. The Bonbori Festival (both the lighting ceremony and main the festival) was held for a second time in 2012, a third time in 2013 and a fourth time in 2014 (Table 2).>In addition to members of the tourist association, the executive committee for the festival comprised representatives of the production committee and Kanazawa city. The aim was to create a genuine ‘regional festival’, which, while not large-scale, would continue indefinitely into the future as a small-scale event. The committee decided that the event should not damage the image of the anime work or the region, that it should be held on an on-going basis within the means of a small onsen district, and that it should be established in people’s minds as a traditional event of the region to the extent that they would be unaware that it was originally based on an anime. The tourist association also prepared for the festival rigorously in accordance with traditional local festival procedures. For example, the programme of the ceremony and Shinto prayers were determined by the Shinto priest with jurisdiction over Yuwaku Onsen area. Moreover, on the day of the main festival in October, the Shinto prayers were offered by the priest as the most important ritual.

>>19413262>>19413306The chapter actually says that at first it was primarily women who formed clubs around particular characters and produced fanworks focused on sex. A lot of these works were BL, which was popular in shoujo magazines at the time. Early Comiket attendees were primarily young women. To me this looks very similar to what happened in the Western science fiction fandom. Female Star Trek fans started to publish Kirk/Spock smut no later than the early 1970s.

>>19450950The author claims that a defining feature of bishoujo manga is that it is not just erotic, but that the male reader is able to feel close and identify with the fictional cute girls, particularly in innocent situations. This is in contrast to earlier erotic gekiga, which had a different, more detailed and less bubbly, round and cute, art style and normally focused on the sexual conquests of a heroic male protagonist. Hideo Azuma was the key figure responsible for the explosion of bishoujo manga.

It was with the growing popularity of bishoujo manga that the Comiket demographic became more and more male. These men were famously ridiculed in Manga Burikko for attending a convention also attended by real women, but apparently ignoring them in favor of 2D cuties.

The rewards of non–commercial production: Distinctions and status in the anime music video scene (2010) by Mizuko Ito

h ttp://firstmonday.org/article/viewArticle/2968/2528>Anime music videos (AMVs) are remix videos made by overseas fans of Japanese animation. This paper describes the organization of the AMV scene in order to illuminate some of the key characteristics of a robust networked subculture centered on the production of transformative works.

The gist is that cute girls from Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime express their emotions freely and sincerely. Certain boys and young men develop an attachment to this type of anime because they were taught to repress their emotions, particularly positive emotions. Repressing emotions makes them feel depressed and uncomfortable inside. For them CGDCT anime is a way to experience free emotional expression vicariously. In more extreme cases they develop a desire to become cute girls themselves to escape their depression and discomfort.

>>19453238>>19451067I can't relate to idolfags on a personal level, but statistics like this really explains why /jp/ has so many idol threads. They're bigger than everything else in Japan's popular culture.

Aum Shinrikyō and a Panic About Manga and Anime (2008) by Richard A. Gardner

h ttp://www.gwern.net/docs/eva/2008-gardner.pdf>In the weeks and months following the Tokyo sarin attack, commentators saw nearly every aspect of contemporary Japanese society as a possible cause for Aum’s violent behavior. More than a few identified manga and anime as a major factor behind Aum members’ “bizarre” beliefs and actions (Ōizumi 1995, 42–43).

h ttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Lamarre/publication/236710706_The_Animalization_of_Otaku_Culture/links/574c7f4208ae82d2c6bb3416/The-Animalization-of-Otaku-Culture.pdf>The essay first appeared in a volume edited by Azuma titled Mōjō genron F-kai (2003, Net-State Discourse F). It derives from a conference presentation given by Azuma just prior to the publication of Dōbutsuka suru posutomodan

h ttp://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/kiyo/pdf-data/no35/renato_rivera.pdf>their refusal to subscribe to the norms of society and to conserve, in a sense, the essence of their hobby by not allowing it to enter the hands of high culture nor the general public, echoes Okada’s claim that the otaku ought to be a unified community which not only does not mind being pushed into the outer realms of society, rather, it benefits from this sort of outcasting.

>Figures and models seem to appeal to male hobbyists more, but we tried to appeal to the female market too with ‘Aoba’ (released in 2013, from the BL game Dramatical Murder), a PVC beautiful boy figure for women. It’s around this time that the market expanded enough for business. We meant to give it a shot, but more than 10,000 copies were sold at more than 10,000 yen each.

Otaku and Moe: An Intercultural Analysis of the Fetishist Tendency of Otaku (2011) by Hashimoto Miyuki

h ttps://fphil.uniba.sk/fileadmin/fif/katedry_pracoviska/kvas/SOS_10_1/06_37hashimoto-form120131_Kopie.pdf>Psychiatrist Tamaki Saito observes the central characteristic of otakism as being their distinctive type of sexuality and defines it as follows: »An otaku is someone who can masturbate to the image of an anime figure.« Saito thus thinks that otaku culture differs from juvenile culture. Architecture theorist Kaichiro Morikawa shares Saito’s opinion and maintains that this point explains the difference between otaku culture and Disney culture. Otaku culture uses sexual nuances consciously, while Disney cartoons avoid every sexual nuance in order to remain a juvenile culture.

>Aside from serious personality disorders, which should be dealt with outside class, I have found disruptive otaku behavior falls into two categories: 1. challenging the authority of the teacher and 2. resistance to academic analysis of the material.

Galbraith, P. (2017). 'The lolicon guy': Some observations on researching unpopular topics in Japan. (Excerpt from The End of Cool Japan)>h ttps://www.academia.edu/28693090/The_Lolicon_Guy_Some_Observations_on_Researching_Unpopular_Topics_in_Japan

Ootsuka, E. (2010). World and variation: The reproduction and consumption of narrative.>ht tps://www.academia.edu/2093053/_%C5%8Ctsuka_Eiji_and_Narrative_Consumption_An_Introduction_to_World_and_Variation_in_Mechademia_5_2010_

>Consider Japan : there’s a country that deliberately protected itself from history during three centuries ; it put a barrier between history and itself, so well that it perhaps permits us to foresee our own future... Now, what Japan teaches us, is that one can democratise snobbery... Next to the Japanese, English high society is a bunch of drunken sailors (Kojève, 1968, see Nichols, 2007, p.85).

>While Azuma’s thesis is insightful, it seems to fail to make good on the radicality of its initial assumptions and project. We therefore need to go further. At the beginning of Azuma’s work, he asks after what becomes of the humanity of human beings at the end? By the finale of book, he seems someway off from answering this fundamental question. Is Azuma really saying that solitude is the answer to life – is meaningful in an historic sense - at the end of history?

Processes of Cultural and Media Consumption: The Image of ‘Otaku’, from Japan to the World (2014) by Yuji Gushiken and Tatiane Hirata

h ttp://www.scielo.br/pdf/interc/v37n2/en_1809-5844-interc-37-02-0133.pdf>The French journalist Etienne Barral (2004) interprets the appearance of the Otaku social group as being due to Japan’s education system itself, considered to be homogenizing and massifying, prone to eliminating all kinds of transgressive behavior or individual expression. The Otakus characteristic of collecting data on their favorite consumer products, something that is irrelevant to other people, is related to the teaching methods used in schools and prep schools which prioritize memorization of information.

>Once in Japan, otaku themselves actively support Japan's nation branding efforts by teaching English and producing the very cultural commodities that motivated their migration in the first place, as they increasingly codify what Japaneseness is for other “foreigners.” At the same time, otaku migrants further reproduce Japanese national identity through accepting and affirming their status as non-Japanese, and through the reinscription of these very boundaries onto other otaku.